The Assessment of Originality in Academic Research

Abstract

"Nowadays, for those working in the academic field, the list of publications has become an essential condition in justifying the research activity. “To be or not to be” published in high-ranking journals and indexed in databases is a criterion in the evaluation of any researcher. In some cases, originality is a sine qua non condition for acceptance or publication. And yet sometimes the definition of the concept of “originality” is confusing in some cases. The novice researcher (and not only) needs some terminological clarifications and contextualization in the daily practice. In this sense, this paper offers possible answers to the questions: what is considered to be research? what is originality in research and why is it important? who and how evaluates originality in research? This last interrogation is the key question of the article, and the answer is presented on two main coordinates: the pre-publication evaluation (performed by the author himself followed by the peer-reviewer) and the post-publication evaluation (performed by Altmetrics and again by the author). Therefore, the whole process of evaluation is viewed from the perspective of a cycle that begins and ends with the author. Keywords: research, originality, peer-review, databases, Altmetrics, databases, citations "